Publishing Books with Students

This past Monday I heard Kwame Alexander, who is a poet (He trained with Nikki Giovanni at Virgina Tech!), author, and founder of Book-in-a-Day, speak at the KSRA Conference in Hershey, PA.  My handwritten notes from his talk about engaging students with poetry are at the bottom of this post.
Alexander founded Book-in-a-Day, Inc., or BID,  [...]

Writing About Historic Events, People, or Places

Pennsylvania-based author Linda Oatman High led a session entitled “Writing to the Beat of a Different Drummer” at the KSRA Conference I attended this week.  (My handwritten notes from her session, which provided an array of ideas for getting students to write, are located at the bottom of this post in a Scribd Document.)
Oatman High [...]

I {Heart} Comments

From time to time, I use this blog to sort out ideas I’m wrestling with.  I must admit this puts me in a vulnerable place.  Such was the case with Monday’s posts.  Audience — authentic audience — has been on my mind a lot lately.
Sometimes I think we make things more complicated than they need to [...]

SOLSC Meets Picture Book Illustrators

KSRA Authors Tea Mug & Chocolate (er, what’s left of the chocolate)
Originally uploaded by teachergal

When I received the registration form for the KSRA Conference, I did something I don’t usually do. I signed up for the Author Tea. I figured I might meet some interesting people and have a nice afternoon snack. [...]

Join Us for Today’s Slice of Life Challenge!

Please link your Slice of Life Story to this post by leaving a comment.

Motivation (Part II).

This finally led me to thinking about my high school art classes.  I was in the Honors Art Course and for me it was tough to get into.  I worked even harder to stay in it.  I didn’t have the talent that everyone else had and I lived with the pressure that someone else could [...]

Motivation (Part I)

Last week I was in a history class.  It was the teacher’s prep, but there were students working to put final touches on their presentations which were due later in the day.  Out of the blue, this conversation ensued:
“I’ve got to start all over!” a student shouted.
The teacher smiled and said, “What do you mean?”
“Look at theirs!  It’s [...]

Encouraging Revision

Revision is one of my favorite parts of the writing process to teach.  I enjoy figuring out ways to encourage writers to make significant revisions.  It seems so often our students revise just to appease the teacher and the revisions don’t really matter to the writer and don’t really matter to the meaning of the [...]

Making Students Feel Valued.

This morning as I was listening to the radio on my way to school, they were asking little kids to respond to the question:  How do you know someone loves you?  This response stuck with me:
You know someone loves you by the way they say your name.  Your name just sounds safe in their mouth.
It’s [...]

WordFest 2009

I presented at the Capital Area Writing Project’s WordFest tonight.  Just thought I’d share my presentation in this forum as well.

SESSION NAME: Well-Chosen Words About Slices of Real Life
BRIEF DESCRIPTION: Help your students find the beauty in their everyday lives by opening up your notebook and sharing your own writing with them. In this section, [...]

Personification, An Effective Ending, & More

A copy of Laurie Halse Anderon’s The Hair of Zoe Fleefenbacher Goes to School arrived at my home last week. I read it once and put it aside since I was unsure of what this book would be most suitable for teaching (i.e., there’s so much it can be used for!). I took [...]

Write What Matters Most.

It’s getting late.  I’m tired.  A blog post is required before I go to bed.  Although I have a list of possibilities, I don’t have the energy for them.  Not tonight.  Tonight I simply want to take Walter Wellesley “Red” Smith’s advice: 
“There’s nothing to writing.  All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open [...]

Today’s SOLSC Coincides with The National Day on Writing

Our weekly Slice of Life Story Challenge coincides with The National Day on Writing today.  Celebrate this special day by doing one, or more, of the following things as a writer:
1)  Craft a new piece of writing and link it below.
2)  Peruse the National Gallery of Writing.
3)  Take part in a live webcast from 9:00 [...]

Peter Johnston + Agency

These words of Peter Johnston’s from his book Choice Words (2004) have been tumbling around in my mind this weekend.  I plan to keep them close as I go about my work this week.
If nothing else, children should leave school with a sense that if they act, and act strategically, they can accomplish their goals (29).
As [...]

The Case for Record-Keeping

Ruth and I are putting the finishing touches on the Conferring Section of our book just as I’m starting to work on presentations for two separate school districts about conferring in the Writing Workshop.  Hence, conferring has been on my mind a lot lately!

Record-keeping is always a hot topic when you talk about conferring since [...]

A New Source for Finding Mentor Texts

I’m not recommending a children’s book you can use in your classroom today.  Instead, I have something better.  It’s a professional book about children’s books that every writing teacher needs to have improve their use of teaching with mentor texts needs to have.
Earlier this year Susan Ehmann and Kellyann Gayer published I can write like [...]

Here’s to Writing Workshop!

Today Tony Miller and his third grade class invited me to celebrate with them the publication of their first pieces.  (Although we considered this the launch unit, it was actually the third unit of study, following Oral Storytelling and Launching Writing Notebooks.)  It was a perfect celebration.
We started in the traditional way, meeting in the [...]

Do You Ever Wonder If Kids Have Time to Wonder Anymore?

This past summer Pam Munoz Ryan, author of two of my favorite read aloud books (i.e., Becoming Naomi Leon and Esperanza Rising) spoke at the TCRWP Writing Institute. Her speech, “Reading to Write, and Writing to Read” took the audience on a journey of what she called “an unchoreographed childhood,” which was the result [...]

Anecdotal Writing = Slice of Life Writing

I’m presently working on a PowerPoint Presentation for an interactive workshop I’m leading at next Thursday’s WordFest 2009: A Celebration of Writing, which is sponsored by the Capital Area Writing Project.  My workshop is entitled “Well-Chosen Words About Slices of Real Life.”  The session description is:

Help your students find the beauty in their everyday [...]

A Peek Into My Notebook

In this (too-long) video, I share a peek into my notebook.  I’m not sure what happened, though, because when I prepared it for the Internet, the final letter was dropped from many of my titles.  Considering I’m brand new at this, I decided to still post it and beg for advice from some of you [...]

There’s Still Time!

After grappling, for months, about what I would submit to The National Gallery of Writing, I finally wrote a piece about my transition to teaching from working in public relations.  I submitted my piece to the Pennsylvania Council Teachers of English and Language Arts (PCTELA) Gallery last week.  It’s called “Transition to Teaching.”  It’s not [...]

Spelling + Drafting + 2nd Grade Writers

My oldest daughter is a second grader and a whiz at spelling.  Every Friday she brings home a list of “Word Wall” words for the upcoming week and asks me to “quiz” her.  She knows them all every time.
One of her favorite past times is writing.   (The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, eh?)  A [...]

Developing Theories About Craft Moves

This past summer I spent a week at the TCRWP Summer Writing Institute.  One of my week-long courses was about mentor texts.  Emily Smith, the section leader, introduced us to a book, But That’s Another Story edited by Sandy Asher.  This book contains shorts stories from a variety of genres, such as science fiction, folktale, [...]

Slicing on Tuesday

Gallery of Writing

The National Day of Writing is rapidly approaching.  Have you submitted your writing to the Gallery yet?  There are many possibilities for the type of submission you can contribute.  Click here to view the guidelines, which are few in number.
ENJOY!